For kids like this-- I really encourage parents to read The Manipulative Child. Oh my, the things that my DD was capable of at this age are almost mind-boggling. But she really was doing them in an effort to avoid something that seemed (to her 4-7yo mind) "worse" than the 'punishment' any adult could devise.

It really changed how I interacted with her to read that book and recognize when she was towing me in, inch-by-inch. I was playing right into her hands. :sigh:

Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.